LIAT promises better employee relations

Regional airline LIAT has announced that it plans to build confidence between the carrier and its employees.

According to media reports, Chief Executive Officer, Julie Reifer-Jones, has said that LIAT made a commitment to engage with employees because the airline sees it as a major issue.

” Engaging with the employees is about refocusing on what LIAT is about, what our objectives are, about why we take some of the decisions we have taken and making sure that there is an understanding of what is in the best interest of the company as a whole,” she said.

Reifer-Jones made the comments when asked why management and staff have a combative relationship and why the attitude of the staff towards passengers is labelled by many as poor.

She admitted that the airline has not done enough to engage its employees over the years since more attention was paid on how to turn around LIAT’s financial challenges and effect a re-fleeting exercise.

Reifer-Jones asserted that employee engagement will increase because the airline’s managers want a better relationship with the workers.

She also disclosed that LIAT wants to see an improvement in services offered, including timeliness of flights and prompt delivery of luggage – among other things.

“We are having town hall meetings, we’re meeting with the departments and discussing various issues as to how we are going to get back on the right footing,” she stressed.

LIAT pilots staged protest action over three days earlier this month in a dispute over pay.

The strike had a ripple effect on bookings, with LIAT announcing that it lost thousands of bookings for the period June to September at an estimated cost of about $7 million.

3 Comments

Anon1

Anonymous

It took LIAT’S management over 50 years to realise that staff must be treated fairly if they want them to love what they do and to give proper service to the customers. You just cannot disregard the staff and take decisions which will also affect staff and expect them to work efficiently. A man is only as good as his word. Reifer-Jones it will never happen. The only time you engage staff will be after protest action. this has always been the norm in LIAT